... Pete, but should have made it clear that in my opinion the number of people who "need" assistance is vanishingly small and would not include anyone who either is able-bodied or has living relatives to take care of him/her.

What I have in mind as to who would qualify:

Mentally and physically disabled and elderly people with no living relatives to care for them.

There should also be strict standards of what constitutes "disabled" (not the all-inclusive definition currently in vogue, by which half the damn population would be considered disabled).

No able-bodied person of work age should be eligible for government assistance without actually working. If we are going to pay social benefits (SS, unemployment, whatever your favorite government give-away is), the recipients should ALL be required to work for the money. There is plenty of government work available (i.e., have you checked out the sides of the roads lately). Governments are always complaining they don't have enough money to do all the necessary work -- well, there's a workforce available to do at least some of it. All we need it the political will (read that "backbone") to make use of it.

It would take time to bring this about because we could not arbitrarily scrap SS now -- too many people already dependent upon it. But, we could wean the next generation starting now.

----- jim o\-S